Mr. Speaker, in 1991 the Progressive Conservative government under former prime minister Brian Mulroney launched the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. The commission was set up in recognition of the failure of the aboriginal assimilation policies Canada had been pursuing since Confederation.
The RCAP report issued 10 years ago was the result of the most extensive consultations and research ever undertaken on these issues. It set out a new approach to give life to the right of aboriginal self-government enshrined in Canada's Constitution. It put forward a 20 year plan to improve the lives of the Inuit, Métis and first nations people across the country. However, most of the recommendations were never implemented and the Conservative government was defeated by the Liberal government under Jean Chrétien.
Under the Liberals, the budget for the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs ballooned over $8 billion, yet the framework that was identified by the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples was never addressed, leading to further frustration and despair of the aboriginal peoples and their leadership.
Why was that abandoned by the Liberals back in 1993?